Ninth Dings Wagstaffe For Cutting Black Jurors

San Mateo County prosecutor Stephen Wagstaffe, who could soon become the county’s next district attorney, got dinged by a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Tuesday for discriminatory jury selection.

The panel, led by Judge Marsha Berzon, overturned a high-profile 2001 murder conviction because Wagstaffe struck the only two black people in the jury pool during voir dire.

Wagstaffe said today in an interview that he stood by his peremptory challenges. He said he has “never misrepresented anything in a courtroom” in 32 years of practicing and that he doesn’t think the decision will hurt his chances of becoming district attorney.

“I don’t think you can find anyone, anywhere who would ever question my integrity,” he said.

(Unless you look on the Ninth Circuit, one supposes.) More after the jump.

A.J. Kutchins, a Berkeley-based appellate lawyer who argued Ali’s case, said that Wagstaffe is known as an able prosecutor and that his voir dire strategy did not “differ from what most DAs do in most courtrooms in California.”

Wagstaffe secured a sentence of 55 years to life in prison for Mohammed Haroon Ali, who murdered girlfriend Tracey Biletnikoff, the daughter of former Oakland Raider Fred Biletnikoff. But the Ninth Circuit, reversing both a federal district court and a California court of appeal, decided that Wagstaffe’s reasons for striking the two black jurors were pretexts and ordered Ali’s conviction reversed. Deputy Attorney General Michele Swanson, who represented the state on Ali’s habeas petition, did not immediately return a call seeking comment on Tuesday.

According to the Ninth Circuit’s opinion, Wagstaffe’s three reasons for striking one of the jurors didn’t stand up to scrutiny, and the fact that he struck the only other black juror for questionable reasons as well showed that he acted with “discriminatory intent.”

Wagstaffe’s three reasons for striking the juror known as M.C. were: She had come into contact with the criminal justice system when her daughter was molested; she would frown on the attorneys if they didn’t always act “decent” and “respectable”; and her Christian faith made her hesitate in answering a question about judging another person. But the Ninth Circuit noted that Wagstaffe had accepted two white jurors with “more problematic” criminal justice experiences, that M.C.’s expectations of decent behavior were reasonable, and that Wagstaffe didn’t seem to care about M.C.’s Christian faith before he was asked to justify his challenge to her, and had accepted a Jehovah’s Witness who made statements more equivocal than M.C.’s.

Wagstaffe said that he would retry Ali if the attorney general’s office does not seek further review and the case is remanded to San Mateo County Superior Court.

“I mean, the man confessed to killing Tracey,” he said.

— Evan Hill

Comments

[John Walters]

There was another case where an appeals court basically called Wagstaffe the liar he is. That was in Wagstaffe's objections to parole for a convicted second degree murderer, who had been an exemplary prisoner. Wagstaffe misrepresented the original case and the appellant's prison record. Also, how about Wagstaffe's support of the Sheriff down there who got busted in the human trafficking brothel in Vegas? An activist uncovered an email Wagstaffe sent the guy in support. It shows no concern with the clear violation of law or the women forced into prostitution. But they seem to love this kind of law enforcement in San Mateo County, I don't doubt he's in for DA

[Michael G. Stogner]

Steve Wagstaffe:
“I don’t think you can find anyone, anywhere who would ever question my integrity,” he said.

I Michael G. Stogner do question Steve Wagstaffe's integrity.

[Michael G. Stogner]

Steve Wagstaffe might ask Susan Navratil what she thinks about his integrity.
She reported to the Board of Supervisors at a public meeting the Deep Level of Corruption in the District Attorneys Office.
http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=22216&eddate=05/14/2003

What Steve probably meant was I don't think you can find anyone, anywhere in the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office who would ever question his integrity.

[Michael G. Stogner]

Steve Wagstaffe might have been referring to that small but very powerful group of people. "Those Who Matter."
below are two e-mails from James P. Fox and Steve Wagstaffe to San Mateo County's Top Two Law Enforcement Officers who were caught and Identified as Customers of Underaged Human Trafficked Sex Slaves. in Operation Dollhouse 4/21/07

http://smdailyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=825&page=3

[John Walters]

Thanks for the info on Wagstaffe. The bottom line of course is, there are no black people in San Mateo County, so this will not hurt him one bit.

[Michael G. Stogner]

I'm not sure if Victor Willis still lives in San Mateo County or not but he is black and Steve Wagstaffe made sure America's Most Wanted did a show on his failure to appear in Drug Court.

http://smdailyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=840

San Mateo County Supervisor Rose Jacobs Gibson isn't concerned.